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Dark Age of Camelot Roundtable Report by Dana Massey, MMORPG.COM R.A. Salvatore keynote and Labyrinth of the Minotaur details highlight the Roundtable Last week, EA Mythic held their annual Dark Age of Camelot Roundtable event in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event doubled as the official debut of Dark Age of Camelot: Labyrinth of the Minotaur, the first commercial product released since Electronic Arts acquired Mythic earlier this year." title="Dark Age of Camelot Roundtable Report"> R.A. Salvatore keynote and Labyrinth of the Minotaur details highlight the Roundtable Last week, EA Mythic held their annual Dark Age of Camelot Roundtable event in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event doubled as the official debut of Dark Age of Camelot: Labyrinth of the Minotaur, the first commercial product released since Electronic Arts acquired Mythic earlier this year. "The Cows Cometh", Labyrinth of the Minotaur Details The big news out of Las Vegas was the first in-depth details of Labyrinth of the Minotaur. The new features include one new race and class for all three realms, champion levels 6 through 10, mythical slots, a Minotaur relic system and the epic Labyrinth dungeon. The new race - accessible to Albion, Midgard and Hibernia - is the Minotaur. According to the lore, this ancient race once inhabited the three realms and their capital was at the site of present day Agramon. Their city was both above and below ground and there they created relics of their own. Over time, they dispersed, the area fell into disrepair and now the race is separated, rather conveniently, into three clans. The Minotaur race carries high strength and constitution, but lacks dexterity and quickness. They are also resistant to heat and cold. There are three classes open to Minotaurs in each realm, plus the Mauler. * Albion: Armsman, Mercenary, Heretic and Mauler. * Midgard: Warrior, Berserker, Shaman and Mauler. * Hibernia: Hero, Blademaster, Druid and Mauler. The Mauler class is also available to three realms, but unlike the Minotaur, it must be unlocked by the realm. Each realm's server cluster gains access by capturing an as yet undecided number of Minotaur relics. Once accomplished, the Emissary of the Minotaur rewards that realm with access to that class. Over time, the number will diminish, meaning everyone should eventually unlock the Mauler. Plus, on Mordred and Gaheris, the Maulers will be available from day one. "The Mauler uses gravity, magnetism and aura powers to augment melee combat", said the slides as Yarbrough presented them to us. The class wears leather armor, has new weapon specializations called Fist Wraps and Mauler Staff, gets combat power regeneration and new abilities called: kick, push, silence, multi-attack, disarm, nearsight immunity aura and a casting time increase debuff. Minotaurs, Britons, Celts and Norse are allowed to create Mauler characters. The magnetism mauler line is crowd control oriented. There is also a power strike line that is more offensive and carries a wealth of debuffs. The Aura Manipulation line is more of a defensive specialization track. The Minotaur Relics should add a new ripple to Realm vs. Realm (PvP) combat. There are twenty-three relics, with twenty-one in the frontiers and one each in the Battlegrounds and Labyrinth dungeon. They are acquired through PvE encounters that are geared to anywhere from solo to two groups. There are 6 encounters in the Frontiers and fifteen in the Labyrinth. Any player can pick these items up and they come in three types. Gate I Relics improve only the person carrying them, Gate II Relics help their entire group and Gate II Relics provide an aura effect. Yarbrough noted that there will be logical number limit on aura effects to prevent infinite stacking. To retain the relic, players must simply kill things in RvR. If not, it reverts and people must go do an encounter to get one back. Players shouldn't have any problems finding hotspots though. Holding a Minotaur Relic makes the player visible to their enemies on the map. For those who are capped out in Camelot, Champion Levels 6 to 10 should be exciting. These will provide players with a measured power increase, more health, additional sub-classing points, new mythical slot items, player titles, new horses and additional weapon tints. To go along with the levels come new quests that unearth the story of the Labyrinth and the Minotaurs. This also means players can advance through PvE quests rather than RvR if they so choose. There are three tears of new mythical items. The first tier is available at Champion level 6, the second at level 8 and the third at level 10. This is a further way for characters to differentiate, advance and customize. The new expansion is their first retail addition in a while. They're aiming for a November launch that marks the first time Electronics Arts will bring a Mythic product to market. Yarbrough hopes that their experience will provide them with new fans and increased visibility. Yarbrough also told us about the details of a patch that he hopes will come out along with the new expansion pack. In it, their top goal is to bring the game's quest system into the modern era. He spoke of how good their system was when they launched, but how it simply doesn't hold up compared to the current generation of games. Look for them to change that. Trying not to look too far a head, Yarbrough did admit they're in preproduction on their next expansion. Financially, the plan is set, but it remains to see what way they will go. As usual, he promises it will be based highly on user feedback, both in terms of what players tell them and date they gather from the game. Finally, he also told us that they would be working on a refined newbie experience and user interface improvements for a free patch sometime next year. Mythic: EA's MMO Company Later, Dark Age of Camelot Producer Walt Yarbrough submitted to an interview with MMORPG.com. Having covered the expansion in the presentation, we concentrated on other things; namely Electronic Arts. Yarbrough, naturally, had nothing but good things to say about the effect the deal had on the newly dubbed EA Mythic and their original product Dark Age of Camelot. Many of the immediate changes were procedural, corporate changes that the company had coming anyway due to its size. Since the deal came down, EA Mythic has been positioned as the large-scale MMORPG experts in the Electronic Arts empire. Now, just as the producers for Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online report to senior Mythic staff, so too will the producers of Ultima Online and eventually The Sims Online. Electronic Arts has often been criticized for a lack of understanding in the MMO-space. Thus, it makes a lot of sense that they purchased Mythic, in part, to bring them that experience. The deal also allows EA Mythic to invest a more resources back into Dark Age of Camelot. He pointed out that the box sales alone for their next expansion should win them back the development costs and be a positive influence on their overall bottom line without even having to calculate in the long term impact on their subscriber base. This should mean better things are coming for fans of DAoC that otherwise may not have been possible. Keynote: R.A. Salvatore - The Author The presence of famed Forgotten Realms author R.A. "Bob" Salvatore, who was recently announced as the Creative Director of high profile MMO start-up Green Monster Games along with Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling and the famed artist behind Spawn Todd McFarlane, added an extra level of curiosity to the event. Salvatore delivered the keynote address. Salvatore's speech was more of a story. Always engaging, Salvatore took the guests from his earliest days in grade school when he loved to read stories to his current status as a New York Times bestselling author. Salvatore has been a gamer for 26 years, but there was a time when he would have laughed if you told him how his life would turn out. As a child, he loved to read and write, but as many of us do, he lost his passion to the dreadful books many are forced to read in grade-school. It took a blizzard to get it back. His sister had given him Lord of the Rings for Christmas 1977, a present he initially dismissed. Salvatore, at this time, was a college freshman and a math major. He had no interest in Hobbits. Yet, in February of that year, he told us of the great blizzard that hit New England. For seven days, the entire community he lived in was shut down as they tried vainly to dig out. A 19 year old, Salvatore had nothing to do in his parent's house, so he finally picked up those books. With a passion that could still be seen in his eyes nearly thirty years later, he told us how he read the whole trilogy three times that week. The next week, he changed majors. It wasn't until 1983, after he'd graduated and read all the fantasy he could get his hands on - and at that time there was not nearly the wealth of novels there are today - that he decided to turn his hand to writing. During the day, Salvatore labored in a factory and at night he was a bouncer. Yet, somehow, he found time to write his first book. It took him six months. He held no delusions. He didn't think it was possible to make a living as an author. He simply wanted to write and share something with his wife, kids and those who came after him. This is no simple story of rags to riches though. The book, written by hand to candle-light, wasn't picked up immediately. Eventually, he was convinced to send it out and met a round of rejection letters from publishers. Despite the rejections, Salvatore continued to write for passion. In 1987, he sent out a book to another round of publishers, including TSR. TSR, who later sold their Dungeons and Dragons property to Wizards of the Coast, didn't buy that book either. Yet, it did impress them enough to open a door. He got a call and as luck would have it was offered a chance to audition for a job writing the second novel in a newly created Dungeons and Dragons world: Forgotten Realms. He got it. R.A. Salvatore - The Gamer Salvatore didn't sign on to Green Monster Games because it got him Red Sox tickets - although I cannot imagine that hurt - he did it because he loves games. He told the audience of his first flirtations, when he couldn't get into Ultima Online, and then his first love when he found EverQuest. EverQuest inspired him, as it has others. He started as a Barbarian and played with his regular Dungeons and Dragons group. Over time, they tried other games, including Dark Age of Camelot, World of WarCraft, EverQuest II and many more. However, lately, Salvatore admitted he'd been back in the original EverQuest. He simply has too much invested in those characters to move on for any length of time. His 22-year-old-son who helped hook him up with the EA Mythic event is more of Dark Age player. Naturally, speaking before a Dark Age of Camelot audience, he was asked why that game didn't keep him longer. "I'm not a PvPer, I suck", he said only half kidding. Despite his lack of skills, he then launched into one anecdote where he did pretty well. On a World of WarCraft PvE server, he and his guild mates boarded a ship for a long journey. Another guild had joined them on the boat to go raiding. One character of about his own level continually challenged him to a dual. Taunts flew, but Salvatore was not interested. Finally, after annoying him for several minutes, Salvatore agreed. Just before they hit the zone line, Salvatore simply cast mind-control and ran his loud-mouthed opponent off the side of the boat. Everyone else zoned, their obnoxious friend drowned. His guild mates got such a kick out of it they didn't even mind having to wait for their friend. Salvatore outlined how he sees the role of top-down in MMORPGs. His philosophy was somewhat surprising given he made his name as an author. "You're going to write your own great darn story", he explained. "People are not there to read my book, but to write their own". He doesn't think MMORPGs should be about him telling the players a story. They should be worlds players experience. They should stimulate the player's own imagination. Ultimately, he realizes that no one cares if R.A. Salvatore, Todd McFarlane and Curt Schilling are making an MMOG. All that matters is that it is fun. He sees the keys to a good MMP as being casual friendly, allowing people the ability to solo and letting people accomplish something - anything - in 20 minutes play bursts. He, like so many people, does not have the time for an eight hour raid every day. He also likes the idea of a seamless world and insists that games need to be places you dream of being, not where you already are. This means vivid colors and fantastical sights. He was especially critical of EverQuest II for failing to achieve that. Finally, Salvatore spoke a bit specifically about Green Monster Games. He told us of how Curt Schilling started the project for all the right reasons. He may be a rich and famous athlete, but he's also a gamer. The last thing Schilling needs is a day-job or more money. Salvatore believes Schilling gives the project a higher profile, visibility and a wealth of contacts in the gaming industry. Todd McFarlane is a top notch artist who already has his own 200 person studio to draw from. Salvatore himself brings an understanding of how to tell a story or enable gamers to tell their own stories. Ultimately though, Salvatore reminded us that it will be the designers, writers and game people they hire who make or break the product.

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